Piotr Ibrahim Kalwas

Piotr Ibrahim Kalwas (born 4 November 1963)^[1] is a Polish novelist, journalist, and twice nominated for the Nike Literary Award.

Piotr Ibrahim Kalwas was born in 1963 in Powiśle, Warsaw to a family of Catholics in Poland. His father is a former Minister of Justice of Poland, Andrzej Kalwas.^[2] In his youth, Piotr Kalwas was a member of the youth punk subculture. He studied at a university, but was expelled, and earned a living by taking simple jobs, most notably when he worked as an illegal immigrant construction painter in Norway for 3 years and where he met his wife, Agata. Then he became involved in business, most notably as a restaurant manager in Warsaw, and he was among the writers of the popular Polish 1990s series "The World According to the Kiepski Family"^[3] (in his book, "Salam", Kalwas described "The World According to the Kiepski Family" as "the most intense show in the history of Polish television "^[4]).

In 2000, after long journeys to Asia and Africa, Kalwas converted to Islam and assumed the middle name of "Ibrahim".^[5] According to Kalwas himself, his religious views are close to Sufism, although he is not Sufi.^[6] In 2008, he moved to Egypt with his wife and son, and lived for 8 years in Alexandria from 2008 until 2016. Kalwas's life and work in Egypt became the main theme of his literary work – reportages for Polish media and several books. Kalwas lived in Egypt for eight years, but after publishing the book "Egypt: Haram, Halal" he left the country because of concerns about personal and family safety, considering the critical nature of his books and reports about Egyptian society, even the Egyptian government in some instances.^[7]

He currently lives in Gozo, Malta. He's married and has a son.^{[citation needed]}

• Salam, 2003
• Czas, 2005 – nominated for the Nike Literary Award 2006, the action takes place in Eritrea^[8]
• Drzwi, 2006
• Rasa mystica: traktat około Indii, 2008
• Dom, 2010
• Tarika, 2012
• Międzyrzecz, 2013
• Egipt: Haram Halal, 2015 (reportage) – nominated for the Nike Literary Award 2016^[9]
  • Ukrainian translation: "Єгипет: харам, халяль", translated by Les Beley [uk], "Choven" (Човен, "Boat") Publishing House, 2018, ISBN 978-83-941461-7-7.^[10]
• Archipelag Islam, 2018
• Gozo. Radosna siostra Malty, 2020^[11][12]
• Dziecko Księżyca, 2021^[13][14]
• Marhaba, 2022^[15]